Education Notebook: When the flu's got you down

The flu is no laughing matter. Luckily, I've been able to steer clear of it this year — yes, I knocked on wood — but it has certainly ravaged the city over the past month-plus.

It has been felt particularly hard in schools, where student absences were noteworthy both leaving for the two-week Christmas break and returning from it.

In the Abilene Independent School District, especially, the week before taking time off from school was a bad time. According to the district, 203 students missed class of some sort the final week of school before Christmas in December.

"We were hit extremely hard just prior to the Christmas break," district spokesman Phil Ashby said in an email Tuesday.

That's quite the understatement.

Those 203 students who missed because of flu-like symptoms — the district isn't equipped to make an official diagnosis in any case of the flu — represents more students than who were out sick the entire back-to-school time the year before.

According to district-provided numbers, only six students were flu-ish the week of Dec. 9, 2016. And seven showed signs of having the flu a week later. Coming back that year, January 2017 showed increased flu presence, but only 108 cases were reported to the district through Jan 27.

Possibly the most interesting flu-related absence this current school year, though, might have been an adult and not a student. According to Ashby, the clerk in the health services office, who is responsible for compiling information like how many flu cases kept students out of school, was ill herself.

So, when I asked them for their numbers, they sent me generalized information. According to attendance records, Wylie says, 409 absences were reported the week of Dec. 21, while 127 absences were reported during the first three days of the first week back to school.

Those numbers are about dead even with the figures reported during the same time period of the 2016-17 school year. But, again, they include more than just flu-related absences.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to climb back into my anti-flu bubble.

Trifecta for TSTC

Three tidbits of news from Texas State Technical College las week:

First, officials for the culinary school on North First Street celebrated the winter growing season and what it means to students studying how to turn vegetables into delicious food.

Kayleen Mills, a Culinary Arts instructor at TSTC's Abilene campus, uses celery and onions in stocks. Locally grown celery is available from December to April and onions can be planted in November and December in Central and South Texas with crops being available from March to August, according to the state extension service.

Herbs are also available year-round throughout the state. Mills said she and other faculty members grow herbs in raised gardening boxes in the parking lot next to the T&P Depot in downtown Abilene.

"It's a huge money saver and time saver and it's neat for the students to see it too," Mills said. "Things like that do very well in the winter."

Second, college officials made an important addition to the technology available inside the nearing-completion Abilene campus being built on Navajo Trail by Abilene Regional Airport.

Lincoln Electric provided 10 welding machines to the campus, which is set to open for the fall semester.

"This support gives our students access to the newest technology out there," Interim Provost Rick Denbow said. "Our students have the advantage of becoming familiar with industry-standard equipment before they begin working."